A person can have pain or depression that accompanies shame. It can suppress a high quality of character. Feeling shame can divert good intentions or haunt efforts already made. There are those that benefit from shame when it brings repentance for past sin. David knew shame when the prophet Nathan confronted him about his adultery and murder of the woman’s husband. On the contrary, Eli expressed no shame for the serious sins committed by his son in the exercise of their priesthood.
For the person to come to Jesus so that he would be his Savior, there must be some sense of humiliation and regret that is dishonoring to self-esteem. Real repentance is not an arbitrary choice someone declares. Emotions may accompany repentance, but emotions do not indicate repentance. The spiritual benefit we gain by having shame comes from a painful conscience where guilt, unworthiness, or failure are recognized before the perfection of the Almighty God.
Whoever experiences a guilty conscience without repentance brings disgrace upon himself that he has not admitted. True repentance is preceded by an awareness of the inability to help oneself. Without Christ, we are doomed and there’s nothing we can do about it. When confessing our sinful nature to God, we are also admitting that we have violated our own honor. Seeking forgiveness, true repentance is a matter of disappointment for how we have lived and the choices we have made.
Shame may be very good in the discovery for what we have allowed in our lives. The person who will not condemn himself as a sinner refuses to be ashamed. Asking Jesus to be our Savior is a confession of our own unworthiness. Shame is a recognition of our own failure and defeat. In essence, we violate ourselves. We allow spiritual confusion to be our means of logic for how to live. When we experience shame, any confession to God is not part of a ritual or routine but a wrenching of heart and soul.
When it comes to our association with Jesus, the true believer will not be embarrassed to confess him before others, but to share the gladness of having a personal relationship with him. In spite of persecution, the genuine seeker of truth is willing to stand with other persecuted Christians under any circumstance. It is important to admit that we have brought shame on ourselves which is a disgrace or reproach we bear as a creation of God. God allows us to experience shame as a form of judgment. That is why Jesus had to die on the cross and not some other method of execution. It was the ultimate humiliation and curse on the one who sunk to what amounts to the lowest levels of criminal behavior, while being forsaken by God.
Christian Writer 